Formichetti, responsible for many of the pop diva's most memorable costumes, including the 'Meat Dress', won the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the British Fashion Awards in London in December.

On a catwalk, designed to resemble a futuristic Gothjc Cathedral, Lady Gaga made two sensational appearances in white and boudoir-pink Latex corsetry and skintight, pencil skirts, smoking a cigarette, and balancing without any appearance of nerves on foot-high platform booties. Her coiffure, designed by the Scottish hair stylist, Sam McKnight, featured a chopped-off black fringe, and two, three-foot platinum "ponytails".

In her finale appearance, she roped herself to one of the Gothic arches with a 20ft white chiffon train, as her current hit, 'Born This Way' thundered through the sound system.

Backstage, after the show, she told The Daily Telegraph: "I was nervous, but I had to do it for Nicola and for Thierry Mugler, whom I love. I have been a fan of his designs since I was 18, and I used to search the vintage shops in New York for his clothes."

Formichetti made his debut as the new Mugler creative director at the menswear season in Paris in January.

This was his first womenswear collection for the brand. Typical of the extreme silhouette Mugler himself made fashionable in the 1980's, it zeroed in on a sex-symbol silhouette in sprayed-on stretch, PVC and rubber, with extreme winged "Metropolis" shoulders, see-through bustiers and micro-skirts, in shades of black, powder-pink and cobalt.